A SPLATTERING OF CLAY

I’m just a splatter of clay shaped like nothing on the workman bench. Jesus took me in His hands
Sprinkled some water on me it was different, I thought I might be molded into a nice plate for eating
Since that was not to be. He began to spin me on this potter’s wheel.

Soon my unshapely form began to slowly rise, and then He took His two thumbs and began to push down on my head until there was a little indentation on my head, oh well I thought briefly that I might be put aside as a mistake, but boy was I wrong.

He placed His two thumbs round my neck and slowly began to squeeze. Oh God, I thought what did I do to have the life squeezed out of me. Really nothing for with all this squeezing and wetting I began to take shape I was going to be a jar useful for something finally He was finished and I was a well-shaped jar.

Ok, I thought what now, there I sat not being used for anything until in mid-afternoon the doors opened wide and the one who had shaped me was taken away.

My type of thinking was this lamb had been lead to slaughter. Here I was a jar type vessel and the lamb was lead to slaughter and they did just that, but I stood firm right where I was and darkness fell over the whole country suddenly the doors burst open it came to some strangers took me down seeing I was empty filled me with the blood of the lamb as the blood was poured into this clay jar it was no longer red as blood I’d been wash white as snow cleansed in the blood of the lamb

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Editor’s Note

The number one question our editors receive is—what do the editors and judges look for when judging the contest? The number one answer we give is creativity. Unlike prose, writing composed in everyday language, poetry is considered a creative art and requires a different type of effort and a certain level of depth. Of the thousands of poems entered in each contest, the ones that catch our judges’ eyes are the ones that remove us, even just slightly, from the scope of everyday life by using language that is interesting, specific, vivid, obscure, compelling, figurative, and so on. Oftentimes, poems are pulled aside for a second look based simply on certain words that intrigued the reader. So first and foremost, be sure your poetry is written using creative language. Take general ideas and make them personal. In his infamous book De/Compositions: 101 Good Poems Gone Wrong, W. D. Snodgrass imparts, “We cannot honestly discuss or represent our lives, any more than our poems, without using ideational language.”